A process for producing coconut flakes and the products obtained therefrom is shown and described in DE 24 22 640 A1. To produce an oil cake, which is to be subjected to further processing, this process provides for coring the harvested coconut, fine grinding and pressing out the coconut meat in a suitable pressure vessel and thus separating the coconut milk from the oil cake. This oil cake is mixed with the inner fluid obtained during the drilling of the coconut and water and subjected to another pressing in order to separate more milk and a second cake.
The total coconut milk obtained from these pressings is centrifuged, and a cream and a skimmed milk are obtained. After corresponding dewatering and centrifuging, the cream yields coconut oil, which is intended for consumption.
It was found that this process is extraordinarily complicated, and it is aimed primarily at obtaining coconut flakes or powder rather than at obtaining oil.
French Patent No. 1 564 857, also describes a process for the treatment of the fresh core of the coconut, which is similar to the above-described process. The coconut milk is separated from the oil cake by pressing in this case as well, and a skimmed milk is then obtained, and the cream is subjected to further treatment in order to obtain the fresh coconut oil and a food product therefrom. Four products that are important for human nutrition are thus obtained, namely, fresh coconut oil, the concentrated coconut milk, as well as a product containing the coconut proteins, and an oil cake, whose solids are partially leached out is obtained as a byproduct for feeding animals.
This process is also very labor-intensive, and the efficiency of the production of the coconut oil is not optimal.
DE 1 047 971 B proposes a process and a device for isolating oil and fat from coconuts, in which provisions are made for heating a mixture of liquid and coconut meat gratings to a temperature of 30° C. and for obtaining a filtrate by pressing out, which said filtrate is subsequently subjected to churning. The churned filtrate is heated to separate it into protein and liquid as well as solid residues, and the protein as well as the liquid are separated by settling, and the pure oil is separated mechanically from the rest of the liquefied filtrate.
Consequently, a filtrate, which contains all the constituents, i.e., also the fat component of the coconut meat, which requires a complicated further processing to obtain the coconut oil, is obtained here in a first operation.